We had our first very, very preliminary planning meeting for Sae’s & Mr. T’s wedding on Friday. I may decide to just start calling it the Epic Wedding, because I think that’s where we’re headed. (We can only hope that in the end it will be the good kind of Epic, full of hilarious adventures and people ending up Happily Ever After instead of the kind of Epic where you endure untold hardships and privations as you go in pursuit of a goal that ends up costing you so much to achieve that you’re never really able to return home and enjoy normal life again.) So far we have a budget and a location for the ceremony (Corpus Christi, where over half of us were Baptized, all but one received our First Communions, all of us were Confirmed, and from which one of us was buried), some options for reception locations, and no date. Mr. T, who has been very ready to marry Sae for several months now, would like the wedding to be earlier, in May. Sae, who likes to have time to accommodate herself to things, was thinking more August. I’m pretty sure Mr. T is going to win on this one, but we’ll have to wait and let the two of them work this out. We also have colors (blue and green), and some general ideas of what Sae and Mr. T would like. And I think that’s quite a promising start.

Part of what is going to make this the Epic Wedding of Epicness and Also Joy is not only that Sae is the first of all of us to get married (eleven kids, friends, eleven, all of marriageable age, and not one married), but Sae has let it be known that she wants all of us to be in the wedding. She had been a little anxious about this beforehand, worrying about how she could possibly make the decision of which sibling to have in the wedding party, and how to not have someone in the party without hurting anyone’s feelings. We all assured her that we loved her very much, and while we would be thrilled to be her attendants (or Mr. T’s), we didn’t have to be in the wedding, and would be just as thrilled to help without being an official Bridesmaid. And we really meant it too, which is the amazing part. I was betting on either Mariah or The Duchess as Sae’s Maid of Honor, possibly one or two other sisters as Bridesmaids, which left room for a couple of friends if Sae wanted to have them while keeping the wedding party to a reasonable size. On Saturday AnniPotts joyfully proclaimed that she was going to be a Bridesmaid, so I was deeply surprised and thrilled when Sunday evening Sae and Mr. T dropped by my house on their way home from their NFP class and asked me if I would be a Bridesmaid too. I was more thrilled than I can say. There may have been twirls of glee involved. That’s when Sae told me her generous plan to have everyone involved in one way or another. This may take some finangaling – Indy isn’t crazy about the idea of having to get up in front of people, and Rosie isn’t sure how this would work for her since she’s really not the Bridesmaid type. So we’re not sure how the final result will look, but in the meantime it sounds like Bridesmaid dresses or Boutonnières for everyone!

Also, on the topic of Wedding of Epicness, so far it looks like I’m going to be knitting Sae’s wedding veil. On Friday I showed her the lace thread I have, and we looked at a few patterns on Ravelry. There are some incredibly beautiful examples of lace shawlsused as veils there. We didn’t have time to make any decisions (though if the wedding is in May, I need to get knitting!), but we discussed a little what Sae likes, and hopefully we’ll make a decision this coming weekend. However, I thought some of you guys might like to weigh in on this veil knitting thing (in a totally non-binding way, since none of you are Sae, who holds the only opinion that really matters), so without further ado, here are a few of the patterns that I think will make lovely veils. Click on the links to check them out, and then vote for your favorite in the poll below:

While we’re on the subject of knitting, I’m chugging along on my Christmas presents. Last night I finally finished a present that I’ve been working on, technically, for a couple of years. I’ll tell the whole story later when I can accompany it with pictures, but for now, it’s so good to be done. I bound off while watching episodes of Lie To Me on Netflix, and it took over two episodes to finish the bind off. Sigh.

Also, a little update on the job situation: I don’t know yet. Last Tuesday my Fairy Corporate Recruiter Godmother called and said that the interview on Monday had gone very well, the prospective employers liked me very much, and it was down to me and one other candidate. They had asked if both of us would come in and get tested on our basic Microsoft Word & Excel skills. I went in and got tested Wednesday, but at that time I was told that the other candidate wouldn’t be able to do the testing until Monday (that’s today). So the earliest I could find out is sometime today, though more likely tomorrow. I’m at work all day today, and my cell phone gets no reception in that building. Hopefully I’ll have a message waiting for me on my voicemail when I get home. If it’s good news, I’ll probably broadcast it by twitter & text message right away. If there’s no message, or it’s bad news, you might have to wait a little while for the sting to ease before I can share it. But hopefully by Wednesday I should know for sure one way or the other, and I’ll let you know. If you’re the praying type, please continue to pray for me!

I have a bad habit of bringing way more crafting projects with me on vacation than I could possibly finish in twice the time I’ve been gone. It’s like my mind goes a little crazy at the thought of actual free time, and starts dreaming over-ambitious dreams of what I could maybe get done. usually I end up just lugging the projects home again at the end of the week, but this time I was smart. I took with me a bunch of projects that had been languishing in my basket for far too long, waiting for me to do that just one little bit extra so they could be completely done. My gift to myself, this vacation, was the experience of actually finishing things, and coming home with a bunch of completely done projects, all ready to use or give away or whatever. I’ve been wanting to show them to you ever since, but never got around to photographing them. Until today. Enjoy. 🙂

White ankle socks, knit from Knitpicks Comfy Fingering weight yarn in White, using the Univeral Toe-Up Sock Formula by Amy Swenson (my go-to sock pattern for every occasion), with my own small mods. These socks are so soft – they feel amazing on my feet! The only change I would make is to knit the cuff in 1×1 ribbing instead of 2×2, which is a little loose. Otherwise perfect!

Sunshine Baby Blanket, knit with Caron Simply Soft using a modification of the Moderne Log Cabin Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting. This is intended for Diva’s firstborn, and will probably be the last baby blanket I knit for quite a while!

I also finished the handwarmers that were Ani’s Epiphany present back in January. They’re knit from Serenity Sockweight yarn in the Lavender Topaz colorway, using a pattern I made up as I knit along. I’m particularly proud of the cables on the back.

I just started the second to last chart, and am contemplating whether or not I want to add beads to this last section. On the plus side, it would look awesome, and add some drape to the shawl. On the negative side, this shawl is very large, and that many beads might add a lot of weight, which could end up distorting the shawl, and perhaps even pulling apart the soft thread. For reference, here’s a couple of pictures of completed Queen Anne’s Lace shawls. What do you guys think?

I have been spending much too much time lately taking silly teeny bopper quizzes on facebook. Though it has been a voyage of self-discovery. It’s amazing the things you can discover about yourself. For example, did you know that while in a past life (in which I was apparently Pablo Picasso) my nationality was English, now my true inner nationality is Swedish? Also, if I were a muppet I would be Gonzo, but if I were a character from Lord of the Rings I would be Faramir. And while the celebrity I should marry is Brad Pitt, the name of the man I’m going to marry is Dan (I don’t think I even know any Dans right now). Moreover, in the case of a zombie apocalypse, I would not only survive, but thrive and go on to rebuild civilization from the smoking ruins. Also, I am a True Cincinnatian (although I have never lived in Cincinnati in my life), and if I were an Evil, Evil Person in History, I would be Julius Caesar. Which is kind of silly, because Julius Caesar wasn’t really all that evil. He just liked to be in charge. I mean, if you’re going to talk about evil Roman emperors, he’s not even in the game next to guys like Caligula and Nero. Sure, Julius Caesar switched Roman government from a republic to a dictatorship, but does that really hold a candle to killing your pregnant sister by performing a C-section without anesthetic to remove the child that you fathered on her? I would say not. But that’s just me.

Yeah, I’m back at work full time. This is going to be a long summer. At least I hope so.

In other news, our new roommate is going to start moving in this afternoon. I’m very excited about this. Johnsy and I have been looking for more roommates for some time (it isn’t really practical to have that big house with just two of us in it), but for one reason or another, things never ended up working out. Then I got an e-mail from Magda, a girl I’ve known for a while through our Catholic young adult group. Her living situation had just changed, and she wanted to know if I knew of anyone who was looking for a roommate. I replied that I did know of someone, namely me! She came over last week to look at things, sign a lease, and get her key, and today she’s moving some things in. She probably won’t be living with us full time until sometime at the end of June (she wants to stay with the family she was living with as long as possible), but I’m excited to have her around.

Also, in addition to my continuing Fun With Cars, I now also have Fun With Lawn Mowers. I’m the one who mows the grass at my house (having someone to share this chore with is another reason why I’m excited about another roommate), and normally I use a push mower, the kind without a motor. However, between the crazy weather, crazy academic schedules, and other things, I kept putting off cutting the grass until the grass in the back yard, which grows like crazy anyway, had turned into an absolute jungle. There’s no way the push mower is going to cut through that. We also have an old gas powered mower in the garage, which Johnsy’s been fixing on. She actually got it started last Saturday, but I was only able to mow around the perimiter of the back yard before it conked out and would not start again. I don’t know if I’m just not strong enough to pull the ignition cord hard enough, or if it’s another problem (probably both?), but I do know that that back yard looksvery peculiar right now, and it’s got to be fixed. Mick had said that he could come over today to help, but, well, it’s been raining all afternoon. He says maybe tomorrow, but I’m beginning to think it might be quicker to use some of my homemade ice cream to bribe AP into bringing me my parents’ mower (and maybe even mowing the yard for me? it’s really good ice cream). We’ll see how that goes.

Sarah Whittle, coral stitch: You can use different thread thicknesses or change the angle of the knot to give different effects. Coral stitch can be used on straight or curved lines as well as being used as a textured filling stitch. When using as a filling stitch place the knots into spaces between the knots of the previous row .